Author Notes:

Also, a bit of news. As the Dragonshy arc approaches its ending, guest comic season will be following soon after to fill in the gap! Don't worry, it won't be nearly as long as the hiatus earlier in the year. Just a little more than two weeks. There's more information on this topic here. I'm looking forward to what pops up this time around!

78 Comments:

I once ran a Super Hero campaign where the team had a morale quandry. They ended up in a heated debate to the point the players Live-action RP'd their chracters walking away and slamming doors on their way out.

It was totally in character and they were just acting, but man did that frighten me for a moment. XD
Bonus exp all around.

NMM: "Really? REALLY?! How in the hay did this go so wrong? Hire a big deadly dragon to cause trouble in Equestria? Check. How was that a bad plan?! I-"
*Catches the edge of the FlutterStare*
NMM: "...nvm, gtg."

They're not so much resistant to intimidate as resistant to that method of intimidate. The hydra has multiple heads, so it can't be stared down by a single pony. The cockatrice will turn anything that looks at it into stone. That one didn't quite work, so Discord can also mind control without looking into there eyes. Cerberus has multiple heads again. I think the Ursa Minor just attacked when Fluttershy wasn't there.

Actually, I think it's more about the DM choosing monsters Fluttershy wouldn't intimidate in-character (like parasprites, who are cute), or she can use animal empathy on instead (which then fails, even if she's being in character), or aren't "mean" enough to trigger a super-intimidate.

I hope Inky doesn't mind me telling her story, but she told Dan what she planned on doing to Mephisto as revenge for Stylus, Heat Wave, and herself. It was kinda not sutable for anyone under EVER. and involved lots of torture. She did it descriptively. I laughed like a dork when she told me it XD

Oh, there was the last Super Hero campaign session where the GM had a group of mooks attack us while we were driving up to Geneva.
GM was genuingly freaking out because everyone apparently unplugged their brains to try the dumbest car chase ideas ever, including-- Ramming the enemy's slightly armored car with our top-heavy panel truck, leaning out the windows to shoot the bad guys while traveling at 65+MPH, and paying no mind to the innocent bystanders also driving on this road.

How we survived was pure unadultered kindness from the GM. >_>
He might have felt particularly sorry for Trixie since this was a massive running gun fight and Trixie's spells proved useless here.

There's always the story about I overthrew the GM and installed myself as the new GM, freaking out and screwing over the rest of the players. It's on page 81 but I'll post it here again for easy reference.

So we were on a quest to eradicate some evil cult that was trying to summon some evil entity but needed a couple of "worthy" sacrifices, aka the players.
So the GM tries to break everyone's character and turn them to evil by summarizing everyone's flaws, how the party looked down on them and promises of whatever they wanted if they betrayed the party. Of course, nobody was falling for it so everyone turned the offer down. Except me. I basically screwed everyone over, betrayed the party and joined the GM as his foremost general. Cue faces of disbelief on the rest of the players.
Some sessions later, we were at the summoning ritual and the GM's plan was to stall until the ritual was complete and let the evil entity (can't remember if it was a god, demon or something but whatever) loose on the party, including me.

Ever since I betrayed the party, I had been sitting at the GM's right hand side and exchanged notes with him so I was in on the plan, except for the part where he planned to sacrifice me as well. I did suspect it so it was time to double cross the GM. The moment the evil entity entered our world, I murdered the cult's high priest, assumed command of the cult and struck a bargain with the evil entity. I would offer it all the members of the cult if he would make me his top agent/enforcer/avatar in this world and retreat back into his dimension because, well, he would get annihilated when the entire world (mostly lawful good) would unite against him. A couple of skill checks later and cue the surprised look on the players' faces who were now under the impressing that I didn't really betrayed them after all and was working from the inside. Of course, the DM couldn't comprehend that I sacrificed his entire evil cult and had struck a bargain with the Big Bad.

But the part where everyone's jaw dropped was when my character did turn against the party and basically proclaimed himself the Big Bad Evil Guy. So in order to keep up with the story, I exchanged places with the GM. Yes, I overthrew the GM and became the new GM for the remainder of the adventure.

The reason why this worked out the way it did, is because my group are role players first and gamers second. And that right there was magnifique.

What do you mean, a built-in DMPC? My PC (a warlock called Grymnos) was just another PC I played while with the party. It was only after I became the DM that he lost his PC status and become the BBEG.

The cult leader wasn't an idiot, as cult leaders usually aren't but here's the thing: my warlock has insane amounts of charisma. He could punch someone in the face and Bluff them into thinking someone else did it. Or he could use Diplomacy to talk his way out of it.

I still don't see the built-in DMPC. I certainly didn't make a DMPC, as I had been playing said warlock for 8 levels as a PC up to that point. And the DM switch was due to the story/plot. Remember, role players first, gamers second :)

I didn't anticipate becoming the new DM but that has turned out pretty well in hindsight ^^

Not really. As soon as I took over as DM, my warlock lost his PC status and became an elite solo monster like so many. He didn't even show up that much. I think the party's encounters with him can be counted on 1, maybe 2 hands if strechting it a bit.

Well, as I said I'd riot the moment someone proposed giving a player with a still-living PC DM status. There's a reason people have house rules banning NPCs who are relevant and survive more than X scenes.
Then again, seems like you had an incredibly crappy DM since switching to a new unprepared one in the middle of the adventure didn't ruin it. Or one who got their plot derailed in such an incredibly basic manner.

Hey, that person was doing a mighty fine job as a DM. But it's like a said, role playing/story takes presidence over gaming. He could have just said "No, you can't do that." but 9 out of 10, you say yes when a player proposes/does something.

And I wasn't unprepared. Said DM switch happened at the end of the session, making it a perfect cliffhanger. And by the next session, I had enough material to continue the adventure flawlessly.

"There's a reason people have house rules banning NPCs who are relevant and survive more than X scenes."
Are you kidding? Recurring NPC's are the best, as they give the players a sense of continuity. Most prevelant examples being patrons or shopkeepers. It only becomes a problem when they hog the spotlight from the players, which has never happened (aside from, perhaps, that single instance with Sarah)

Here's the short version. The GM invited me in for the finale of her group's Star Wars campaign. She hands me a character sheet, and tells me the rest of the groups who are in a PVP action finale, are all roughly 10-12. I read the character sheet, and I'm a Sith Corruptor, level 18. Given two simple objectives. Turn my son (jedi) to the dark side, and break his squeeze (jedi, who turned him to the light) mentally.

I can't kill either of them, is the only rule. Anything else goes.

I capture both with witty wordplay and the threat of superior firepower, and quick one-liners made up on the spot. I never even drew my saber. I did toss one into the bulkhead, but she was fine. Mostly. Until later.

I broke her using him. He savagely beat her and used force lightning on her.

And then I got twisted. The DM told me what it would take, and then presented it to me on a silver platter.

You want the rest of the story, come see me at http://www.facebook.com/AmericanBronies

I'm an admin there. I don't feel like posting stuff without warning.

Anyhow, I guess it's more the group I freaked out than the GM, but same diff, right?

A very minor example happened during a friend's very short-lived New World of Darkness game. I was playing an ex-cop who got thrown off the force for excessive force (think Elliot Stabler from SVU). The party was investigating the disappearance of a young girl, which turned out to be the work of a rogue vampire. We storm his base and knock him out, but we find that the girl has already been horribly killed.

Now, my character's virtue was justice, but his vice was wrath, so I wasn't sure how to handle things. Until I noticed that we'd knocked the vamp out in a large and heavy doorway, and one leg was in the doorjamb.

Me: This guy's a vampire, so he'll heal eventually, right?
NPC: Yeah, it might take him a few days, but he'll heal.
Me: But he can still feel pain, right?
NPC: Yeah...

*SLAM* I slam the heavy door on the unconscious vampire's ankle, shattering it in a few places.

Best part: I came out of it alignment neutral, because it was both just and wrathful.

Swarm of the Century could work. Or maybe Over a Barrel. It would take a bit of doing, but Stare Master could work too (basically everyone is absent but Twilight and Fluttershy, with some visiting relatives or something as the CMC).

Someone did the Cottage scene from Stare Master as a guest comic, though, unless we're just going to ignore those outright.

Sonic Rainboom might be interesting to see. Nothing says that all D&D games must be 100% combat based. Dog and Pony Show could work as well if you wanted to run the gamut of mindbucking the DM at least once by every character.

Putting Your Hoof Down followed by Hurricane Fluttershy. After the stunning success of Dragonshy, FS overdoes the Intimidate thing and ruins the game. Realising her mistake, she shrinks back into the self-doubting, overly-timid player she was, and needs to regain her self-confidense by helping to send rain to Cloudsdale.

The bonus is, between those two episodes, everyone appears except AJ, so it's viable as a group campaign, with a little creative editting.

I'm thinking it was a right called with the Parasprites. Think about it, a nice little adventure in Ponyville to give the players a chance to recover from the dragon incident.

What starts out as a single small encounter gets quickly out of hand when the ponies decide that the things are cute and take some of them home.

Pinkie, by sheer dumb luck, manages a really good nature check and realizes what the sprite are capable and that only a pied piper routine can stop them.

Pinky, being Pinky, decides to start gathering musical instruments without bothering to tell anyone else the plan. Leading the others to wonder what she's doing and Rarity snarking about how bard's don't take the game seriously. Little does anyone realize what's in store for them. Especially after a botched arcana roll by Twilight.

New Player: "Hey, DM? Why do you have a d20 with only 20's on it? And why do you use it everytime Fluttershy's player does something?"
DM: "Trust me, you haven't seen her get angry."
New Player: "Oh come on, how bad could it be?"

back when I first started playing D&D, one of my friends was a Jehovah's Witness, and would refuse to play the game, and would instead complain about how we were all going to hell. Finally one day I got tired of his complaining and told him that the PCs were currently fighting their way through hell to take out the prime evil for the setting, basically the devil, and if he really wanted to be around us while we were playing, he could write the devil's monologue. I gave him some paper and he went away.

half an hour later he came back and asked for more paper.

2 hours later I went to him and asked for the monologue. he gave me some money, told me to order pizza, and save him a few slices.

an hour after that (and the start of a street fighter tourney later) he came to me with a hand written monologue, and a smile on his face.

so the game continued, and I read out the monologue, and acted out the stage directions. It was a thing of beauty that touched on every action the PCs had taken over the course of the game, and also pushed a couple of buttons in the players themselves. The author just sat in the corner, eating pizza and smiling.

when I finished, the PCs turned around, and decided that trying to fight their way back out of hell was a better idea then facing the Devil. My friend went on to start running his own group.

Hell, purgatory, limbo, The Howling, The Void, whatever you want to call it and whatever rules you claim it goes by. Being denied entry to your deity's paradise after death is to be damned for eternity, regardless of what the alternative of eternal paradise is. It's possible Remial merely misunderstood what his friend was talking about and erroneously equated it to Hell.

This would be funnier if Fluttershy hadn't actually made the dragon her bitch. Then won a staring contest with a Cockatrice. I've had some bad ass characters but none would ever imagine getting into a staring contest with something that had petrifying gaze.

Ooh, fun idea for Discord I don't think anyone's mentioned yet:
Discord is the DM's boy/girlfriend, and a total powergamer. He/she sweettalks the DM into letting him/her make a stupidly overpowered character, and getting away with its abuses.

It's difficult to deny automatic success to a player character on a course of action the player has just performed very well. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes, all the demonstration means is that they get to make the check. The latter is most if the difference betweeen laboratory and field conditions is significant.

Most of the time, it's just not worth the effort to simulate field conditions with fire hoses and a car battery.

I must have read this one five times. Today. So awesome. And I could definitely see 'Putting your hoof down' as the next episode. She gets her way, and goes mad with power... In a cute but startling way. Her friends need to calm her down before the next game session. Nothing like those adrenaline rushes.